Tuesday, 14 December 2010

Christmas – An Italian Affair.

The Claudosa region of Italy comes with many traditions and the Middle Smiths, Markus Smith and the extended family of Claudosa's embrace this festive season in traditional style. The essence of Christmas Day in the Claudosa Family, is family, love and food, la famiglia, l'amore e il cibo. Italian festive food, taken from all the regions they have roots in, Christmas Eve is a day of abstinence from meat so a celebratory banquet frequently features fish – Claudosa has been known to prepare as many as 20 different fish dishes! Specialising in, il capitone, a dish made with fried eels is the center dish. Always accompanied by pasta, loads of pasta, all care of D'Italia.

Lunch, il pranzo, on Christmas Day is the most important of all the Christmas feasts and is a lengthy affair. The Family gather around their huge table and serve delicacies such as crostini with liver pâté or the classic tortellini in chicken stock, brodo are on the table, while lo zampone, a pig's foot filled with spiced mince meat, or il cotechino, a sausage made from pig's intestines containing a similar filling, are particularly popular in the Claudosa region. Lamb follows, l'agnello and accompanying vegetables include mashed potato and lentils, lenticchie. Tortellini, cotechino and lenticchie are often on the menu again on New Year's Eve.

The Claudosa's are known for their sweet-toothed, Bruno Canosa of the Claudosa family insists on dessert. They have been know to indulge in desserts such as nougat, il torrone, and a light Milanese cake filled with candied fruit and raisins, called il panettone. The main, traditional cake is gold bread, il pandoro, which is very similar but without the candied fruit or raisins. A gingerbread with hazelnuts, honey and almonds, il panforte, is also popular.

In fact, most Italian Christmas sweets contain nuts and almonds as, according to Claudosa folklore, eating nuts aids the fertility of the earth and people, increasing flocks and family.

Just a taste of the Claudosa Region to whet your appetite for Christmas. I know Gary of Middle Smiths, enjoys all these treats and hopefully this Christmas will be as traditional as the last 100 years. Long live the Claudosa Era, Long live the Claudosa Family. Happy Christmas.